With the winter season upon us, some of us don’t want to subject ourselves to the wrath of the winter cold, discovering a plan to escape the winter blues.
Australians’ love of cruising was demonstrated yesterday as 2,016 passengers left the Australian winter behind in Sydney and embarked on an impressive 104-night world voyage.
Covering a distance of more than 28,000 nautical miles escaping Australia’s winter by sailing north on Sea Princess on a voyage which will visit 39 destinations in 27 countries before returning to Sydney in late August.
Since Princess Cruises first annual world voyage roundtrip from Sydney in 2008, Princess Cruises has carried more than 30,000 Australians on 10 global journeys. With two world cruises operating in both 2012 and 2013, this year’s world cruise is the 11th the cruise line has embarked on from Australia.
The highpoints of the cruise take in overnight visits to Dubai, St Petersburg, New York and Lima as well as passages of the Suez and Panama canals, and calls to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile, including the isolated Easter Island.
Princess Cruises is the only cruise line to offer a roundtrip world cruise from the southern hemisphere.
Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) Australasia statistics demonstrate the amount of Australians cruising has grown by an average of 20 per cent a year for the past decade, with more than 12,000 Australians compelled to take on a world voyage in 2014.
Nearly 3200 guests will travel on part or all of the world voyage over the next 104 nights. Almost 1300 are doing the full world cruise, including around 1100 Australians.
Guests will still have a taste of Australia even though they travel the world, a staggering 200 tonnes of food and beverage items were loaded onto the ship in Sydney. World cruise guests consume about 400kg of beef, 240 dozen eggs, 150kg of shell fish, 1700kg of fresh vegetables and more than 50kg of chocolate a day.
Next year Princess will offer three world cruise options for Australasian travellers: a 104-night round world cruise on Sea Princess, a 75-night Circle Pacific cruise on Golden Princess as well as an 84-night Circle South America cruise on Sea Princess.
